Archive for the ‘Arcade Gaming’ category

We first heard about Konami’s latest addition to their line-up of bemani games some time ago but despite a number of location tests in Japan, they did a pretty good job of preventing any pictures or video of the game from getting out onto the internet. Fortunately that information embargo on the new Reflec Beat has come to an end as Dasbacon of Bemanistyle.com has posted a video of the game in action. There is no question that the game has DJ Max Technika in it’s sights, with greater focus on reflexive action than other finger music games I have seen. See for yourself in the video below – Reflec Beat seems destined to be one of those games you’ll only see as a special import out of Japan on a rare occasion but you never know.

We first heard about Konami’s latest addition to their line-up of bemani games some time ago but despite a number of location tests in Japan, they did a pretty good job of preventing any pictures or video of the game from getting out onto the internet. Fortunately that information embargo on the new Reflec Beat has come to an end as Dasbacon of Bemanistyle.com has posted a video of the game in action. There is no question that the game has DJ Max Technika in it’s sights, with greater focus on reflexive action than other finger music games I have seen. See for yourself in the video below – Reflec Beat seems destined to be one of those games you’ll only see as a special import out of Japan on a rare occasion but you never know.

There is a new racing game set to enter the arcade market this year and this one is coming from Sega Amusements Europe and Codemasters. It’s one console gamers may already be familiar with, GRID (or as it’s called on consoles Race Driver GRID). Thanks to a tipster who only calls himself Bill, we have your first detailed look at the game (we also contacted Sega first to ensure that it would be OK to go ahead with this as we had ran a post on this some weeks ago and were asked to remove it) as it was seen on location test at the Trocadero in London, UK. As you can see from the pictures, they are reusing the Sega Racing Classic cabinet, but have greatly improved the lighting to draw more attention to it. Here is what we know about it so far:

GRID features event based Racing – You chose and event and then chose a car from a selection of 4 per event.

3 Game Modes

Multiplayer – Quickrace

Single Player – Quickrace

Single Player – Championship: 3 Tiered competition, come 1st, 2nd or 3rd to move to the next tier. (Come first to unlock a special event in the next tier)

Full damage – Great fun in Multiplayer, damage is only visual and does not affect the handling of the cars

Reset button – puts you back on the track facing the right direction almost immediately so you get straight back into the race after a smash

I have not personally played GRID on consoles or PC so I’m not sure if it’s the kind of game that can just be dropped as-is into arcades or if they will be needing to change it a bit. I imagine that there will need to be some changes made and hopefully they are also enough to make the game stand above it’s console cousin. The addition of the arcade cabinet is already a plus but we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out more. Fortunately, we will have more exclusive information on GRID in the near future as it nears a release, with many more details(beyond the Stinger update below)

UPDATE: As soon as I posted this I checked the e-mail and Kevin Williams of the Stinger Report also sent me some additional information on the game(including a little hardware talk), along with pictures. Here’s Kevin’s deeper look at GRID

SEGA Amusement Europe (SAE) held a special LocTest for their in-house developed racing title – ‘GRID’; marking the first time consumer game publisher Codemasters has dabbled in the amusement scene – approached by SAE to license the game for coin-op. A location in London played host to two cabinets shown in a 70 per cent completed state. The prototype cabinets displayed were a version of the same system used to house ‘SEGA Classic Racing’ (now painted black).

The arcade version of the of the original ‘Race Driver: Grid’ – a consumer street racing game launched in 2008, based on the Codemasters ‘TOCA Touring Car Championship’ series started in 1997. The arcade version featured a scaled down version of the original PC game running on a new PC architecture created exclusively to run the Ego game engine (this was not the SEGA Europa-R architecture).

The popular racing game in its arcade clothes includes both a ‘Championship mode’ and a ‘Quick Race mode’ – with the conventional game cockpit layout including ‘Recovery’ button, Up – Down gear shifter and force feed-back steering.

The prototype colourful neon-light ‘blinged’ cabinets were networked for two player racing, and included a ‘Race leader’ light for the audience. The final cabinets are being developed by SAE, and will support six-player simultaneous racing competition (but with no online or tournament support). The game following in the mould of the last SAE release (‘SEGA Rally 3’ in 2008) – though sources suggested that a special deluxe configuration is being considered for release.

The game is expected to be released in fall of this year, though it seems unlikely that a Japanese release will be considered. However sources revealed that SEGA USA will be testing a US specific content version of the game (following the same track as seen with the SAE developed ‘Ford Racing’). SEGA US/UK hoping to make the squeeze on a crowded amusement driving scene, competing with – Namco’s still to be launched ‘Dead Heat Street Racing’, Taito’s ‘D1 GP: Arcade’, Konami’s ‘GTi-Club’ and to be launched ‘Road Fighter’, Global VR’s ‘NASCAR Team Racing’ and ‘TWISTED’ and InjoyMotion ‘Street Racing Stars’.

And by the final tally, it wasn’t even close, with Ground Kontrol pulling in 624,871,000 total points, which were donated to them by players via the Cowbots flash game. Arcade Infinity came in second place with 371,187,900 points and Rocky’s Replay with 109,806,000 points. Congratulations to Ground Kontrol on their victory (which also lands them $25,000 in prize money so they can beef up their location further), I had seen a video online where it showed that they had a station setup just to play Cowbots and they were also on top of sending out press releases to make sure that people didn’t forget. To top it off they even held a 24 hr. “Cow-Down” to promote the end of the event and keep players donating so in the end, the strategy really paid off. If you are ever in the area of any of the arcades above I’d encourage you to visit them but I am sure that regulars for Ground Kontrol are already excitedly anticipating some of the changes that will come to the place thanks to the prize.

Now a question I have is: Is this it for Stride’s Save The Arcades campaign? They didn’t seem to really publicize this one as much as they did the first competition, where they had went as far as hiring actor Zachary Quinto to go out to a California arcade as a part of the promotion. They don’t say anything about future plans for the campaign on the webpage currently so we will have to wait and see but even if this is the end, we certainly have to appreciate the effort. The attention this has brought to arcades has been better than what we get with trade shows since individual arcade businesses have been highlighted on a national scale. Of course there is a lot more that needs to be done to curb perception that the industry is dead but this has been an excellent way in helping to dispel that myth.

And by the final tally, it wasn’t even close, with Ground Kontrol pulling in 624,871,000 total points, which were donated to them by players via the Cowbots flash game. Arcade Infinity came in second place with 371,187,900 points and Rocky’s Replay with 109,806,000 points. Congratulations to Ground Kontrol on their victory (which also lands them $25,000 in prize money so they can beef up their location further), I had seen a video online where it showed that they had a station setup just to play Cowbots and they were also on top of sending out press releases to make sure that people didn’t forget. To top it off they even held a 24 hr. “Cow-Down” to promote the end of the event and keep players donating so in the end, the strategy really paid off. If you are ever in the area of any of the arcades above I’d encourage you to visit them but I am sure that regulars for Ground Kontrol are already excitedly anticipating some of the changes that will come to the place thanks to the prize.

Now a question I have is: Is this it for Stride’s Save The Arcades campaign? They didn’t seem to really publicize this one as much as they did the first competition, where they had went as far as hiring actor Zachary Quinto to go out to a California arcade as a part of the promotion. They don’t say anything about future plans for the campaign on the webpage currently so we will have to wait and see but even if this is the end, we certainly have to appreciate the effort. The attention this has brought to arcades has been better than what we get with trade shows since individual arcade businesses have been highlighted on a national scale. Of course there is a lot more that needs to be done to curb perception that the industry is dead but this has been an excellent way in helping to dispel that myth.

While there have been many new games on the Apple iPhone which are conversions of an arcade game in some form or another, we have not seen many modern arcade ports to the platform. That is about to change with the release of Big Buck Hunter Pro for the iPhone by developer Super Happy Fun Fun. In this handheld iteration of the coin-op title, you take your shots by simply touching the screen and the rules work out just like the arcade version by shooting three bucks while avoiding the does. It also includes some of the mini-game bonus rounds where players can practice their skills.

UPDATE: Super Happy Fun Fun elaborates on the similarties and differences between this and the arcade version in how the game plays:

“The big difference is the controls but beyond that Play Mechanix provided SHFF the actual assets from BBHP arcade game. All of the models, voice and music is exactly the same. The 30 different sites were custom edited to better fit the pacing of the finger shooting style of the iPhone/touch.

The iPhone/touch version features the Whitetail Adventure and 3 of the arcade version’s bonus games but we have plans for releasing additional content.”

One very interesting aspect of this game that will set it apart from other arcade ports is the Arcade Finder function. By using the GPS capabilities of the iPhone, players will be able to find a Big Buck Hunter Pro Online unit near them, which could potentially lead to new players finding their way to the full-sized coin-op version. It also will allow players to create or update their BBH online account and they can even track their standings on both the iPhone and arcade leaderboards. As far as I know, this is the first time such functionality has been featured in an iPhone app (or at the very least, within a game) and I am trying to find out if this feature will be expanded to include Big Buck Safari and Open Season online units as well. The potential for this reaching new demographics via the iPhone user base is pretty high and on top of that the online features could prove to be a popular thing with BBH fans who may want an easier way to keep track of their online standings and that is a great thing for arcade operators.

UPDATE: Super Happy Fun Fun confirmed to me today that the Arcade Finder feature is actually capable of finding all Big Buck units connected to the Coin-Up network, so yes, that will include online versions of Big Buck Safari and Big Buck Hunter Pro: Open Season. Also, the game is now available on the iTunes store today, so you can pick it up and see for yourself.

For a few more details on the game, including in-game screen shots, hit the link below.

While a vast majority of news about new arcade titles has been coming out of Japan lately, AMOA is almost here and that means some game news from outside Japan for a change. This is regarding a software upgrade for one of the biggest arcade hits in recent memory, Big Buck Hunter that will be subtitled “Open Season”. According to the press release by Betson, “…[Big Buck Hunter: Open Season] delivers an astounding 60% more content over the original video shooter. The upgrade includes a wide variety of enhancements and additions over the original version. Three new animals with 9 new treks giving hunters a total of 8 animals and 24 trek options to choose from. With 45 new picturesque sites to hunt new animals such as Mountain Goat, Mule Deer, and Bison, the total number of hunting sites in Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season clocks in at a staggering 120. Nine new bonus rounds were also added to this upgrade for a grand total of 24. Play Mechanix even added another 24 new critters to Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season to enhance the hunting challenge. Last and certainly not least, 2 new full motion big buck girls have been added to this newest edition.”

With all of that the game will be offered in a total of four configurations: a 27″ standard and a 42″ LCD deluxe cabinet and then there will be two different kit options. The game is online enabled to take advantage of RT’s CoinUp network and the game will be shown off at AMOA. For more info on BBH: Open Season, click the link below for the full press release. [Raw Thrills website] [Play Mechanix website] [Discuss on the Forums]